Do you read local newspapers or watch local news?

[El Diablo]

When I was growing up, I used to watch the local news every night. Also read the local paper every morning.

Nowadays the only news I ever watch on TV is CNN. I don't read a physical paper unless I'm travelling, in which case I'll either read the WSJ or NYT. My primary online news source is CNN. I also subscribe to a number of blog feeds and get exposed to various other news sources through them, but I don't read/follow these religiously, more of a skim.

I still check sfgate.com (local paper's website) almost daily because I like to have at least a general awareness of what's going on locally, but I almost never delve into the local sections. So I'm really just aware at a high level of the most high-profile local news/events.

I have no idea who the local TV personalities are.

How about you guys?

[ahnuld]

Hate local news, only will watch if there is some really big event such as the school shooting in Montreal this spring.

Our national news in Canada seems to be a bit better than the national news in the states. Maybe this is because its run by the public run CBC, so they cant pander to the lowest denominator?

Local newspapers are completely garbage, but entertaining. I get one every day and sometimes read it if I have time or if im on the metro. I also subscribe to investors business daily online, and that keeps me up to date on world events.

Most important source of news for me is CNBC. Much better quality than cnn. Also, every important piece of news affects the markets, so CNBC really does cover everything from politics, to disasters, to trials. Only thing it doesnt carry is junk like anna nicole smith.

[Patrick del Poker Grande]

I'm very similar to you in this regard. I used to watch the local news every morning and evening (before the internet was huge). I can't stand local news broadcasts, so I don't watch them now. I'm not much for news on TV at all any more, actually. Not much of a fan of CNN. I never have time to get through a paper, so I don't read that, either, unless I pick up a WSJ while flying somewhere. On top of the time factor, I generally have read all the good news online already anyway. I get all my news online, mostly from Google News and skimming various news sites. The Economist is also a good source and is good reading.

[adsman]

I check the online edition of The Australian newspaper almost every day. I buy the International Herald Tribune a couple of times a week. Italian television is insanely bad. Absolutely impossible to watch without feeling like your brain is oozing out of your ears. African television is better. So no TV news for me.

[FeliciaLee]

We don't have TV, but I read the daily rags online. I also read just the top stories on the Vegas Review-Journal online.

I don't even know where the network channels come out of if I did have TV. Not sure if it would be Vegas, Phoenix or Flagstaff. Odd, I really have no clue. I'll have to find out from someone in Kingman who has TV.

Felicia [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[mrkilla]

Does listening to news Radio count? I don't generally have time to actually watch the news. Sometimes on the subway I will grab a paper if I forget my book or ipod

[MTUCache]

Televised news in the US is basically unwatchable.... just one depressing [censored] story after another, with random useless human interest pieces thrown in for the "feel good" types.

Local news is filled with all the completely non-story types of news about local murders, fires, and local scandals.

National news is completely skewed towards one political agenda or another, and spends as much time on Hollywood gossip "news" as it does about anything else. The rest is political garbage and squawking about Iraq. Completely uninteresting.

Print media isn't any better, as they'll always manage to fill 99% of their paper with whatever was on the local news last night.

Almost 100% of my news input comes from CNN.com or listening to world news programs on public radio. BBC does a better job with US news than anything in the US. At least it's not skewed one way or another, they just present the facts.

Watching my local news on television is basically just watching a horribly unfunny version of Ron Burgundy. If they're not talking about cat fashion shows or bears at the zoo, they're just making a huge story out of some random crime.

I hate to be a conspiracy theorist, but the "culture of fear" is very real in the US, where the media bombards us with messages about how unsafe we all are, how badly we're all being screwed over, and what we need to do to "protect ourselves"... it's quite pathetic really, to see how easily people get worked up about things that don't really matter, and to see the "cliffhanger" commercials for the local news about "Finding out what you're feeding your children that could be KILLING them!!" where it's painfully obvious that they're more interested in keeping their ratings up than they are about actually providing you with the information you "need".

And if I have to watch one more weatherman pretend like his job is the most important job on the planet because he's warning us about the "dangerous" weather that could impact our safety today, I'll stab myself in the face with a rusty shovel.

[Claunchy]

Like everyone else said, local TV news is really bad. I will tune in for the weather portion and that's about it.

The local newspapers in my area are pretty solid, but I don't read much of them other than Sports TBH, just because I don't really care what's going on locally (I probably should), and I get better national/world news from NYT.com.

[goofball]

I find local news to be mostly sensationalism and fearmongering.

[El Diablo]

Claunchy,

"I will tune in for the weather portion and that's about it."

I find that pretty weird. Growing up, that's how I got the weather for the next day. But I can't imagine watching the weather on local TV now when I can just check it on the Internet far quicker and with more detail.